Displaced Artists Festival

This event will be held in English.

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Please join us to celebrate the arrival of the 2025-26 Reid Hall Displaced Artist Resident, Hanna Liubakova, an exiled journalist and political analyst from Belarus. She will be joined by

artist Maha Al-Daya and poet Doha Kahlout, the two Palestinian residents who arrived in Paris last spring. The Displaced Artists Festival will feature an evening of literary readings, an art exhibition, and presentations by the artists.

More details to come.

Hanna Liubakova is an exiled journalist and political analyst from Belarus. She is a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and has written about developments in Belarus for international outlets including The Washington Post, The Economist, and others. Liubakova began her career at Belsat TV, the only independent Belarusian television channel, banned by the regime in Minsk. She also worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in Prague, Czechia. During her residency at Reid Hall, Liubakova will focus on completing her book Exiled Voice: Preserving Belarus’s Story.

Maha Al-Daya is a Palestinian artist from Gaza. In addition to her painting and multidisciplinary artistic practice, she is also engaged in the design and embroidery of traditional Palestinian dresses. Her work explores themes of identity, memory, and resilience, often reflecting the socio-political realities of Palestinian life. Over the years, Al-Daya has participated in numerous prestigious art residencies, including the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (2012), appointed by the Consulate General of France in Jerusalem, and the Darat al Funun – Khaled Shoman Foundation Summer Academy with Marwan Kassab Bachi (2001).

Doha Kahlout is a Palestinian poet and teacher of Arabic. She graduated from Al-Azhar University with a BA in Arabic Language and Media Studies. In 2018, Kahlout published her first collection of poetry, Ashbah (“Similarities”), with Dar Tarik Publishing House. She has also contributed to publications of the Qattan Foundation and Dar Tibaq Publishing House.

Co-sponsored by the Columbia Global Paris Center and Institute for Ideas and Imagination, the Displaced Artists Initiative is designed to support artists who have had to leave their countries of origin due to extreme circumstances (war, natural disaster, political oppression).